Many of those who pleaded equality in the matter of extending the definition of marriage were silent over the inequality in Civil partnerships.
Many were not - Peter Tatchell is the first and most obvious example that springs to mind, who campaigned vigorously (maybe still does, for all I know) for civil partnerships to be extended to opposite-sex couples.
Likewise, many people thought (myself included) that while on its face civil partnerships
seemed to be a step forward, a move in the right direction, in practice they were a typically British fudge, a half-hearted, milk-and-water stopgap designed to appease the "icky" brigade (who are primarily religionists, inevitably). It should have been full marriage equality from the start - plenty of other countries have managed it, why not us? We got there in the end, but "in the end" is a nonsense because the "in the end" includes several years of more fudge than Devon can produce in a century.
My idea that their interest was motivated by antitheism rather than equality are therefore borne out.
Doesn't have to be just the one
or the other, you know, Vlad